The Ignored Nest Boxes

 I explained in some detail previously that for my second chicken tractor, I lowered the nesting boxes. As I noted in another post, the original plans have the nesting boxes relatively high in the tractor which made them the go-to roosting spot.  To this day, my older birds try to pack themselves into the two nesting boxes each night to sleep.  That's problematic on a number of levels.  First, it has dissuaded them from laying eggs in those boxes.  When they started laying, I put another nest box on the floor of the tractor and they have mostly used it.

Another problem is that there's a lot more stress on the nesting box framework than anticipated.  It was really only designed for one or two chickens to be there simultaneously, and for relatively short periods of time.  Instead, it has 50 pounds of chicken sitting on it all night, every night.  I added some bracing but it's holding up relatively well.

So those were the factors that led me to modify the second tractor.  I introduced a lot of complexity but can confidently say I successfully removed the nesting boxes as a roosting spot.  I kept the boxes closed off until the new chickens started laying, but now that I have opened them up, there's very little evidence they have been used at all.  I have only gotten one egg in the boxes.  The rest end up like this:

You can see that they have all decided to use the same spot, back in the sheltered corner under the nesting boxes.  You can also see hay, which has been used to hollow out the nesting spot.  I've been using hay for bedding in the tractor for the last few months while everything has been dormant.  I can't move them around on the grass when it isn't growing, or they will over-graze it.  Hopefully, once things start moving and they are on grass, they'll decide the nesting boxes are a better place to lay eggs.  If not, I'll be 0 and 2 for nesting box placement.

Overall, despite the spot being relatively tough to reach, it's working pretty well.  

 

Update: In the last week, I have started rolling them around the yard again.  They are mostly still using the same spot, in the back corner sort of under the nest boxes, but there are usually one or two eggs out in the middle of the tractor, too--that's bad, because they're susceptible to getting broken. Sigh.

 

Splitting Next Year's (or Later) Wood

 Very generous friends dropped a red oak tree last week and gave me the wood.  It was medium-sized.  It fit (barely) in the bed of the truck.

The relatively small branches I set aside for the moment, and started on the larger sections of the trunk.  Although fresh, it split relatively well, with exceptions.  I have had problems with some varieties of oak when newly-felled.  These pieces tore in places, and some were very hard to fully separate, but over the course of about three hours, I got it all done.  Some I stacked on a pallet:

And some I put on a linear rack under cover.

In the picture above, the new wood is to the left; on the right of the rack is an eclectic mix of maple, poplar, and red oak mostly cut down in 2020.

The two pictures show about two-thirds of the wood from the truck bed. In terms of volume, the truck bed holds about 52 cubic feet; a cord is 128 cubic feet.  When split, the 52 cubic feet would expand somewhat, but it is still probably only about a half cord.  More will be needed for a season's heating, but this is a nice and welcome start.

Some say that oak needs to season for much longer than part of a year: November is only eight months away.  I have burned oak that seasoned for about eight months, and more that has been older.  The longest recommended interval I have found online is three years (here and other places). Many sites suggest two years.  Most sites agree at least that it seasons quicker when split.

I have other wood to burn before this, but will most likely begin burning it sometime next winter.

Contrasting Egg Sizes

I have two batches of Barred Rock chickens, from two different hatcheries.  One bunch hatched in early May, so they were coming into maturity (insofar as egg-laying capability goes) after the fall equinox when days were getting relatively short--and declining.  They didn't start laying until after the winter solstice, at about eight months of age.  The second group was hatched in late September, so they hit maturity after the winter equinox when day length was increasing.  I started getting my first eggs from them at five months.

I realize that, despite the nominal breed being the same, the two groups of birds might be different in important ways.  However, the age gap is interesting, as is this:

The one on the right is from the second group, while the others are from the older chickens.  The bunch that waited eight months before beginning to lay eggs has laid full-sized ones from Day 1.  They have all been about 52-64 grams, or large to extra large.  The one on the right is 37 grams, aka peewee-sized (which is not uncommon for young birds just beginning to lay). Hopefully they increase in size soon.

Pruning Muscadines, 2021

 Last winter, I pruned the muscadines late and they leaked sap horribly for days afterwards.  However, it didn't hurt the vines, and they produced a decent crop--at least a couple of them.  This year, I have been a little more timely.  I'm not done with them yet, but I have begun.  I have just a couple of weeks to get my winter maintenance tasks done before things start to come out of dormancy.

Last summer the Ison grew a lot.  It started off fairly well-contained, but stretched all the way to the end of the trellis line on one side.  It also produced a lot of shoots near the bottom. Some side shoots off the top grew down all the way to the ground, then stretched out another two or three feet.  All got pruned off this month, leaving about 3 buds on the laterals off the main horizontal vines (actually it's more like 2-4, some recommend 1-2 and others say 3-4; preserving forks where they occur).

In the background of this image, you can see another vine that hasn't been touched yet.  Here's a closeup of the post-pruning appearance:

One thing I noticed is that the little tendrils it throws out to anchor itself sometimes latched onto another part of the same plant.  Once they find something to lash onto, they get very tight.  I cut some of them because they left deep grooves in the vine.  

Eventually, the lateral vines will be big enough to resist that, maybe...but not now.  Hopefully this leads to another good harvest this year.

Dealing with Large-Diameter Wood

 I'm definitely not very accomplished when it comes to firewood splitting.  However, I have managed to develop some methods to deal with difficult wood.  One thing that's challenging is large-diameter logs.  Because splitting goes with the grain, if the piece being split is too large, the resulting wedge-shaped pieces will be too big to fit in the stove.

I had a large oak tree cut down a couple of years ago.  While I did split some smaller pieces, the main trunk was huge--three feet in diameter at the base.  I was a little nonplussed about how to proceed.  I wasn't sure I could split it myself.  Meanwhile, it sat in the yard decaying.

I finally decided to give it a try, and was able to make the first split with the maul pretty easily.

From there it was likewise not too difficult to get it into larger chunks, which then could be split into smaller pieces.

However, the wedges were, as noted previously, too large.  I was able to break them into two pieces across the grain using the wedge, but it was pretty tough work.

 

 

I eventually hauled much of it up to the electric splitter, and found it was able to split these relatively small pieces easily (they were only 10 inches long).  Bigger pieces might be a problem; as the pictures show, I have a lot of sections that are longer, up to 18 inches.

One thing I was pleasantly surprised by was the overall condition of the wood--it's still in relatively good shape, but I know the clock is ticking.  There are definite signs of insect infestation. They're returning to dust pretty quickly at this point.  This is probably the last good opportunity to harvest relatively unblemished wood. 

Sweetgum and Eggs

 I've related my difficulties with splitting sweetgum a number of times previously.  While relatively small pieces (up to six inches or so) splits fine, larger pieces are a nightmare.  The wood doesn't have a straight grain.

Yesterday I was splitting what I thought was some oak cut last year about this time.  It was hard to split when fresh, so I stacked it for a while.  Wood that I'm splitting now is for next fall.  I grabbed a piece that was about 10-12 inches in diameter and put it on the splitter.  The splitter was able to split it once, whereupon I saw that it was sweetgum.  I tried to quarter one of the halves and the splitter choked.  I then grabbed my maul and wedge.  I manged to get it into quarters but it took a lot of work.  You can see the blue streak on the wedge as it dug erratically through the piece.

It looks like a straight-grained tree that was twisted by some malevolent force as it grew.  I'm still amazed that there's wood rated worse for splitting than sweetgum (sycamore and elm, according to the University of Kentucky site).

In other news, the chickens are steadily, if slowly, laying eggs. I may have up to three laying now, and I'm getting one per day most days.  They seem to be using the nesting box on the ground inside the tractor consistently now.  The lighter-colored eggs below are from my birds, while the darker ones are from Costco.

Reluctant Egg Layers

 In early May, I got my first batch of chicks, Barred Rocks.

 

They grew very rapidly.

They have been essentially full-grown for a few months now.  As noted elsewhere, I had an issue with a fox that claimed two of them: I didn't fortify their tractor enough to prevent the first attack, but I then made multiple adjustments and have had no further problems.

They seem to be enjoying life, but they hadn't started laying as of late December, despite being nearly eight months old.  I started feeding them layer pellets in mid-September, which in retrospect was way too early, at four and a half months.  Nonetheless, they were getting enough calcium. I was concerned that they might be eating eggs.

Searching online, I saw forum posts from people who indicated that they had new pullets that didn't start laying until days began lengthening in late winter/early spring. I also saw bits and pieces on the web suggesting that six to eight months is normal for Barred Rocks and other heavy heritage breeds.

Finally, I started to get a few eggs.

 

If size, shape, and color are consistent in each chicken, I think I have two who have started to lay at this point--one egg every two or three days.  So I haven't gotten very many total yet (the first one showed up January 2).  They also are not using the nesting boxes, as feared, so I put another nesting box on the ground inside the tractor.  One appears to be using that, but I have also found eggs on the ground.  So far, there's no real sign of one being broken after being laid.

It took a while, but things are starting to happen.